Using Canon 7D for Black Light Video

[Samuel Rogers]

I've been given the task of shooting a black light music video using a canon 7D. This my first time using a DSLR to shoot a black light music video, was trying to get some feedback from anyone who has used the 7D to shoot a black light video. Thanks in advance.

[Anand Modi]

I've been given the task of shooting a black light music video using a canon 7D. This my first time using a DSLR to shoot a black light music video, was trying to get some feedback from anyone who has used the 7D to shoot a black light video. Thanks in advance.

 

I have no experience shooting 7D in blacklight, but I just gaffed on a Super16 film where we shot in a black-lit bowling alley. Here's what we did-- hopefully it's of some use.

 

The location demanded that we not light in any way that would diminish the existing blacklight effect (we shot during a 'glow-bowl' night at a bowling alley that was open to the public while we were shooting). I shined 2 650w tungsten fresnels against a wall in the deep background and put party colors on them to keep the background from falling off into total darkness.

To light the subject, I took a couple of 4' fluorescent fixtures from home depot and found blacklight tubes to fit them (they were about $20 a bulb to buy). I bounced that blacklight at close distance into foamcore boards that I had covered in plain white cotton fabric, which I had washed using detergent (the phosphor residue from detergent is what makes white clothing glow under blacklight). Depending on the distance from the bounce to the subject, I was able to get 1/2 a stop of light (from 10-12 feet away) to as much as 2 stops (4-5 feet away) from the bounce.

We still pushed the film a full stop (Fuji Reala 500D rated at 1000), and had to shoot a wide-open T1.4, but I just saw some still grabs from the telecine yesterday and it looks pretty good.

 

Good luck.

[Leon Grin]

Hi, I have some black light expirence with 7d. First of all you must to change all settings to manual (as you know) and to disable all auto cerrection settings (peripheral illum correct, Auto lighting optimizer, higlite tone priority, long exp. noise reduction, iso noise reduction). I been shoting at ISO 800 and f 2.8. If you are hendheld it's gonna be not so easy to keep focuses so be ready for more takes. Images here are a bit darker due to compresion to JPG, in the orginal footage I have much more details in the dark. Lot of cinematographers suggesting to change picture style as well and to lower contrast (you'll get one stop more ) and sharpnes. There are some nice custom pic gamma profiles which you can download to your camera.

http://www.cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?f=64&p=88923

http://www.cinema5d.com/viewtopic.php?f=64&t=7104

http://marvelsfilm.wordpress.com/2009/10/19/canon-7d-picture-style-with-cine-gamma-s-curve-free-download/

 

In this scene I used two 650W fresnel lights (with dimmers and difusers) , One as a key light and another as backlight. We also used some practicals and bulbs on the bar. In my opinion the key light was to hard (you see spots on his face), at the begining it was ok but then the singer start sweating and it changed a lot. Hope that it helps a bit.

 

 

 

 

 

[Leon Grin]

Of course, the footage isn't black light effect but it can give you some picture about blacks and noise on 7d.

[Edgar Dubrovskiy]

Leon, I think Samuel meant lighting with UV lights: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light

[Leon Grin]

Leon, I think Samuel meant lighting with UV lights: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light

 

Thanx Edgar,

My mistake, thought that he was interested in the low light with 7d, just later figured that it was misunderstanding.

 

Cheers